Will Grand Admiral Thrawn ever be a part of Star Wars Canon?
During last week’s Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm Story Group members Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee hosted a Panel called One Big Story, which adressed the issue of what is now Star Wars canon, and what is not (now called Legends). The Lucasfilm Story Group is a new group, headed up by Kiri Hart (story analyst, writer, and development executive), and created by Kathleen Kennedy (President of Lucasfilm, Film Producer-The Force Awakens), whose job is to make sure that every single Star Wars movie, TV show, book, comic book, and video game all tell one-big Star Wars story.
Boba Fett LIVES! Sort of…
Sadly and frustratingly, there were no definitive answers given about fan favorites like Boba Fett or Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Boba Fett’s fate has been left up in the air, despite man stories regarding his survival of the Sarlacc Pit. In fact, Lucas himself has said that Fett lives…and yet where does he fit into the new Star Wars Canon?
The Old Republic storyline, involves some of the most interesting set of characters, taking place thousands of years before the events of Episode I. Video-games, including an extremely popular MMORPG, and books have established the Old Republic story, so to throw that away, would be tantamount to blasphemy.
The Panel’s group established the fact that the Story Group itself, has a long-term game plan. Apparently, they’ve got ideas spanning possible years and even decades. The idea behind all this, is to be able to incorporate everything Star Wars is becoming.
This is the main reason why the Expanded Universe, of which we Star Wars fans have clung to so vehemently, was classified as Legends. According to the Panel, for Star Wars to move ahead successfully, there is just simply too much story. This story has filled the past thirty years, and the group feels that it was too much for people, who are new the franchise, to worry about…that it could possibly be too confusing. To wipe the slate clean, gives everyone a fresh start.
Although I understand their reasoning, Star Wars is not some new franchise to introduce to the masses. It is an established and almost sentient being, growing and evolving with each new story. To scrap every book and story told, in the past 30 years, is to invalidate entire generations of stories that people have grown-up reading and learning, and memorizing.
The Panel members did talk about how stories are born, and what they do when an author comes to them with a brilliant idea. Like for instance, what happened with the new Marvel Comics series Kanan: The Last Padawan. The Story Group wanted his story told from before he joined Rebels, and just like that, it happened.
Star Wars: The Old Republic – Darth Malgus assaults the Jedi Temple
Here’s where it gets fun. When the Panel opened up to fan questions, much of them were centered on Expanded Universe characters and stories. Star Wars:The Old Republic was foremost on the fans’ in attendance minds. The Story Group answered that while the Expanded Universe is now called Legends and has (tragically), been wiped clean, there are plans to reboot and/or reintroduce characters from that world in the official Star Wars canon.
As for The Old Republic MMORPG video game, the official word is, at this point, it’s still canon until it isn’t…what? Clarification came in the form of an answer that even the most die-hard Star Wars fan should be able to accept: For the moment, the Story Group have no plans to do stories set in that time period (Sorry Revan fans), but they do love the story and if/when they decide to make those stories from the Old Republic period, they will cross that bridge when they come to it.
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